Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Savanah River Site

Status Update

Stuart Hinnefeld, CHP

Director of NIOSH Division of Compensation Analysis and Support

Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 112th meeting

Idaho Falls, Idaho

August 9-10, 2016
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Deliverables schedule

- Co-worker Models

- Neptunium

- Thorium

- Metal Hydrides

- Subcontractor follow-up
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Co-worker models

DCAS to use “interim” Technical Information Bulletin1 (TIB)

First DCAS co-worker model using the Draft Co-worker 

Implementation Guidance 

To include the tritium and exotic radionuclides2 coworker models 

operations, construction trade workers

Scheduled completion through review cycles and delivered 

to the Savanah River Site (SRS) workgroup in October 2016

1 ORAUT-OTIB-0081 Revision 3

1 Note to public: TIBs may be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocastibsnum.html/. 

2 Americium (Am); Curium (Cm); Californium (Cf); and Thorium (Th)
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Co-worker models

Revision 4 of ORAUT-OTIB-0081 (Rev 4) to contain all 

remaining radionuclides of interest1

Scheduled completion February 2017

1Plutonium, uranium, neptunium, mixed fission products, strontium, cesium, and cobalt
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Neptunium evaluation

1. ORAUT-RPRT-0065: An Evaluation of Neptunium 

Operations at Savannah River Site

2. ORAUT-RPRT-0077: Evaluation of Personnel Health 

Physics and Department Codes to Identify Neptunium 

Workers at the Savannah River Site

3. ORAUT-RPRT-0080: An Evaluation of PuFF construction 

worker exposure potential to the Np-237 billet line
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

ORAUT-RPRT-0065: An Evaluation of 

Neptunium Operations at Savannah River Site

 This report gives an overview of the neptunium (Np) 

operations conducted at SRS

 Describes the radiation safety monitoring and the 

personnel monitoring methods 

 Compares doses calculated using urinalysis versus 

whole body counting to illustrate that the whole body 

count methods are bounding for co-worker models

Scheduled completion August 2016
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

ORAUT-RPRT-0077: Evaluation of Personnel Health 

Physics and Department Codes to Identify 

Neptunium Workers at SRS

 This report will demonstrate that we can identify the workers who 

were potentially exposed to neptunium using dosimetry codes to 

support the use of limited data in a co-worker model 

 Example: we know reactor area workers were not monitored for 

neptunium because there was no potential for exposure. Previous 

report identifies that 235-F, HB-Line, and 300 area are the primary 

exposure areas where there is monitoring data

Scheduled completion September 2016
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

ORAUT-RPRT-0080: An Evaluation of PuFF*

construction worker exposure potential to the Np-237 

billet line in 235-F

 This report will focus solely on construction worker exposures 

to the Np-237 billet line in 235-F during new construction of 

the *

Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility (PuFF) 

 This was a major construction undertaking that occurred 

simultaneously with neptunium billet production in another part 

of the building that was isolated

Scheduled completion December 2016
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Thorium

1. ORAUT-RPRT-0070: Thorium Exposures post 

1972 at the Savannah River Site

2. ORAUT-RPRT-0081: Thoron exposures at the 

Savannah River Site
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

ORAUT-RPRT-0070: Thorium Exposures 

post 1972 at the Savannah River Site

 Post-1972 Th exposures report will describe SRS Th work

 Show NIOSH can identify employees, who were most highly 

exposed to Th, were monitored for exotic nuclides through May 

1980 to support co-worker use

 After the May 1980, will support use of 10% of the DAC to bound 

the Th doses when Th operations and inventory were minimal 

(Evaluation based on air monitoring and contamination surveys) 

Scheduled completion January 2017
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

ORAUT-RPRT-0081: Thoron exposures 

at the Savannah River Site

 This report will demonstrate the appropriateness 

of a bounding approach based on tank farm air 

monitoring 

Scheduled completion date January 2017
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Metal hydrides (tritides)

1. ORAUT-RPRT-0072: Metal Hydride exposures 

at the Savannah River Site

2. Discusses research work, operations, and the 

associated exposures to metal hydrides at the 

SRS

Scheduled completion October 2016
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Subcontractor follow-up

In June 2016, NIOSH and Oak Ridge Associated Universities 

(ORAU) identified a large collection (≈ 3000 pages) of job plans 

The plans detailed various work, including construction and 

renovation work in the 773A area

NIOSH will take samples of workers listed on these job plans to 

evaluate whether they were monitored and whether those records 

are available 

Scheduled completion for this effort is February 2017 
Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Summary

# Issue Topic Deliverable Completion

1 Co-worker Models

Initial or interim ORAUT-OTIB-0081 (Rev 3) Oct . 2016

Full ORAUT-OTIB-0081 (Rev 4) Feb. 2017

2 Neptunium

ORAUT-RPRT-0065 – Np Operations Aug. 2016

ORAUT-RPRT-0077 - Identification Sep. 2016

ORAUT-RPRT-0080: PuFF Construction Dec. 2016

3 Thorium

ORAUT-RPRT-0070: Thorium Exposures - 1972 Jan. 2017

ORAUT-RPRT-0081: Thoron Exposures Jan. 2017 

4 Metal Hydrides ORAUT-RPRT-0072: Metal Hydride exposures Oct. 2016

5 Subcontractor 

Follow-up

Job Plan Evaluation of Construction work Feb. 2017